Many different types of industrial or commercial operations rely on large quantities of water for various reasons, such as for cooling systems, or produce large quantities of wastewater, which need to be treated. These industries include, but are not limited to, agriculture, petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical, mining, metal plating, textile, brewing, food and beverage processing, and semiconductor industries. Naturally occurring biofilms are continuously produced and often accumulate on numerous structural or equipment surfaces or on natural or biological surfaces. In industrial settings, the presence of these biofilms causes a decrease in the efficiency of industrial machinery, requires increased maintenance and presents potential health hazards. An example is the surfaces of water cooling towers which become increasingly coated with microbially produced biofilm slime which constricts water flow and reduces heat exchange capacity. Specifically, in flowing or stagnant water, biofilms can cause serious problems, including pipeline blockages, corrosion of equipment by growth of underfilm microbes and the growth of potentially harmful pathogenic bacteria. Water cooling tower biofilms may form a harbor or reservoir that perpetuates growth of pathogenic microorganisms such as Legionella pneumophila. 
Food preparation lines are routinely plagued by biofilm build-up both on the machinery and on the food product where biofilms often include potential pathogens. Industrial biofilms are complex assemblages of insoluble polysaccharide-rich biopolymers, which are produced and elaborated by surface dwelling microorganisms. More particularly, biofilms or microbial slimes are composed of polysaccharides, proteins and lipopolysaccharides extruded from certain microbes that allow them to adhere to solid surfaces in contact with water environments and form persistent colonies of sessile bacteria that thrive within a protective film. The film may allow anaerobic species to grow, producing acidic or corrosive conditions. To control these problems, processes and antimicrobial products are needed to control the formation and growth of biofilms. Control of biofilms involves preventing microbial attachment and/or removing existing biofilms from surfaces. While removal in many contexts is accomplished by short cleansing treatments with highly caustic or oxidizing agents, the most commonly used materials to control biofilms are biocides and dispersants. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,666, a method of removing a biofilm or preventing buildup of a biofilm on a solid substrate is taught, that comprises a combination of at least two biologically produced enzymes, such as an acidic or alkaline protease and a glucoamylase or alpha amylase and at least one surfactant. U.S. Pat. No. 6,759,040 teaches a method for preparing biofilm degrading, multiple specificity, hydrolytic enzyme mixtures that are targeted to remove specific biofilms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,897, relates to a method of inhibiting biofilm formation in commercial and industrial water systems by adding one or more plant oils to the system. However, although the biocides are effective in controlling dispersed microorganism suspensions, i.e. planktonic microbes, but biocides do not work well against sessile microbes, the basis of biofilms. This is due to the fact that biocides have difficulty penetrating the polysaccharide/protein slime layers surrounding the microbial cells. Thicker biofilms see little penetration of biocides and poor biocide efficacy is the result. As disclosed in the prior art, one method of trying to better control biofilms has been the addition of dispersants and wetting agents to biocide compositions to enhance biocide efficacy. Biodispersants may operate to keep planktonic microbes sufficiently dispersed that they do not agglomerate or achieve the local densities necessary to initiate the extracellular processes responsible for anchoring to a surface, or initiating film- or colony-forming mechanisms. As components in biocidal treatment formulations, these biodispersants have helped in opening channels in the biofilm to allow better permeability of the toxic agents and to better disperse the microbial aggregates and clumps that have been weakened and released from the surfaces. However, biodispersants have proven to be more effective in preventing initial biofilm formation than in removing existing biofilms. In many cases, the activity of biodispersants has been responsible for only 25 to 30% biomass removal from biofouled surfaces, even when used in conjunction with a biocidal agent.
Therefore, a clear need still exists for an efficient and effective means for penetrating existing biofilms and killing biofilm organisms with a biofilm matrix, decrease the fouling of the microfiltration systems, providing less frequent cleaning and/or replacement and would enhance the overall filtration process.